E&O Hotel ~ A Weekend Getaway staying at the Victory Annexe Corner Suite

Since March 2013, the Victory Annexe wing of the E&O Hotel in Penang has been opened and I really have to thank my lucky stars that I was invited to a weekend at their corner suites with my lovely family. The very mention of E&O will have people equating superior top notch service and classiness all bundled as a neat package. When I got to know that I will be staying at E&O Hotel for the very first time, I couldn't sleep waiting for the very weekend where we will have a family getaway. Even though its still in Penang, but I can say that after checking in to the hotel, there really isn't any need to leave! 

Being a 5 star hotel, expect all the amenities like their beautiful infinity pool looking over the Straits of Malacca or the many restaurants that are available. There is Sarkies Corner and the Planters Lounge which is located at the new wing of the hotel. Then there is also a fully equipped gym room and I'm just waiting for their up and coming Spa to be completed. Besides these perks, the E&O Hotel management really wanted to highlight the history and significance of the hotel and thus, there is a mini "time machine", alright, its a mini museum, that relates the many wonderful and colorful journeys that they hotel has been through, as well as their many distinguished guests! There are families who continue to visit the hotel for over 3 generations, which I personally found amazing. 

As I took so much photos, I will focus my blogs about the hotel into a few parts, especially when it comes to the food. This post is very much about the Corner Suite, which measures over 120 square meters (yes you read it right). Basically its as large as the apartment I'm staying in and it feels just amazing walking into such a well detailed room. Thus, do read on to have a look at this place, which I have to stress, its all about the details!

When you step into the room, you just go WOW! 

No Eyed Deer Restaurent ~ A hidden gem in Penang

On my endless food hunts, I was guided to No Eyed Deer Restaurant which is located on the 1st floor of the shop lots at Prima Tanjung along Jalan Fettes. Frankly from far or as I have been driving along this road, I have seen the sign board to this place but just have never thought of stopping by.

So as I reach the place, the first thing I asked the proprietor (Ken) was why the place has such a unique name :) Well you can see the reasoning at their website http://www.noeyeddeer.com/ 

The next thing to ask was what is great on the menu. Since there was 3 of us including my daughter, we decided to order something that everyone can share out abit and sample here and there. So do read on to see what a great find this is, and this is the GPS coordinates so that its easy to spot too!

N5.451014, E100.305138

They serve dinner daily except on Tuesdays which they are close. They have lunch servings on weekends too!

NEW YORK 2013 ~ Full House Cafe @ 97 Bowery Street

It seriously amazes me when I can actually be in New York yet have some really great and authentic Chinese dinner! I mean, this place called Full House Cafe on Bowery Street was really pretty good where they have a good selection of dishes and the place has a very modern look and design and you just feel comfortable eating here. The prices are also very reasonable and its worth a visit for those craving some good Chinese food in New York.

Plate of offal with hot spicy chilli and peppers

Marinated jelly fish. Simple and nice

Eastin Hotel Penang, Buka Puasa Dinner ~ Sharing is Caring

Its now the month of Ramadan and I guess for everyone, its a time to reflect and also of course for those foodies, its like a month long of food paradise with all those Ramadan Bazaars hawking some of those delectable once in a year food items.

On the 12 of July 2013, I was thankful and very happy to be invited to join Eastin Hotel Penang for their Buka Puasa Dinner Celebrations. Now, there is your typical dinners but what sets this dinner apart is that the staff of Eastin Hotel Penang took their time, and put in alot of effort to share it with the less fortunate! I enjoy food reviews, but I just love it when it has added meaning to it. This year, Eastin Hotel Penang is celebrating it with the orphanage childrens from Rumah Jagaan Nasyiatul Aisyah all the way from Balik Pulau. Its one thing to invite someone, but when the team at Eastin planned, arranged and even sacrificed their time for this, my hats of to them! I really had a good time, and I sure these less fortunate felt all the love on this very night!

Frankly, I so happy to be writing about this that in some ways, I felt that the food was secondary for the night. When someone is happy and feeling joyous, the sharing environment you are in, everything just taste nicer doesn't it. I'm sure it was like sugar coating for those children, and I can feel their excitement in the air! Ah bliss! I do hope to see Eastin Hotel Penang continuing this very honourable tradition and just before I forget, the staff actually also made a very handsome donation in kind as well as presented goodie bags to the kids! Well done I say again (not sure how many times I repeated this!). This is exactly why I have my blog named as such, TheLifeIsGood when you have the right company.

So, back to the Ramadan Buffet spread. At RM85++ and running the entire month of Ramadan, this buffet to me is a steal. Its probably one of the most authentic of Ramadan Buffets available and I was really surprised to see the number of items being served. From the many unique curry dishes (there was ostrich and rabbit meat) and some very traditional rice with herbs which was just wonderfully flavored. 

Then there is the whole roasted lamb, grilled fish with sambal and their signature, Gearbox Soup! Besides these specials, they did not skimp on other items and had fresh oysters, pasembur and even their signature smoked duck breast! I mean, with so much to choose from, the list goes on. Thus scroll through this post and get your saliva drooling. Cheers!

Candy for the young and old. Well its for the chocolate fondue

Georgetown Festival 2013 ~ Penang

Its been a fabulous month of celebrations in Penang for the Georgetown Festival 2013 and my family and I stopped by on the 6th of July, on the eve of the anniversary to have a look at some of the festivities. It was a crowded night at Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling and Armenian Street and the crowd was awesome!

We reach about 10pm and there was still a huge crowd and it was time for the street performance of the various cultural groups. We witness the amazing lion dance as well as the Indian traditional dance troupe and it was amazing as one performance was happening right after another.

This post is just some of the pictures of the place, and the 7th of July is the last day of the month long celebration and if you have never been there, don't miss out. The events are all happening around Armenian Street so do check it out! There is lots of information booth and volunteers around so don't worry if you don't know where to go! Also check out their website http://georgetownfestival.com/

One of the best lion dance performance I have seen!

Joe's Crab Shack ~ Schaumburg, Chicago

I guess Joe's Crab Shack is quite popular in the USA and thus I found one when I was in Schaumburg. The reason why I wanted to try this place is because they have those giant crabs aka Alaskan King Crabs which is made so popular by Discover Channel's Deadliest Catch. I mean, eating these King Crabs in Malaysia will cost a bomb so I seek out this place and was thankful that you can get a nice piece of this crab for less than USD30. Quite a good deal it seems and thus thats what I ordered. Come to think of it, I should have ordered something more, maybe throw in a lobster or what not. Anyway, I went to the one located at Golf Rd and its a building on its own colored in some really bright colors that makes it stand out. 

I was really surprised by the size of the place once you step in and its tastefully decorated. I'm not sure why their mascot are sharks though and its really cool that I managed to grab a miniature shark back for my daughter! To the waiter who served that Asian dude in March, cheers to you for making my daughter really happy!

So back to the place, yeah its all wooden deco and I chose to sit by the window for some better lighting for my food shots. So I'm happy to report that when the crab pot came, there were a few monstrous legs of crab and 2 potatoes and a cob of corn. Overall, the crab tastes pretty fresh and the lemon butter dip works well together. You are suppose to eat with the supplied tool, but I wish they gave out scissors instead as the shell of the crab is not very hard, thus using scissors would be ideal to get pieces of the crab nicely peeled.

Anyway, I thus had to work extra hard as I like to eat my crabs in as big chunks as I can after peeling and I did succeed to some extent! Well, I do recommend this place as its affordable and I guess value for money. Do check the place out!

This is the place!

Zi Wei Yuan Steamboat Restaurant, Raja Uda, Butterworth

Being a fan of Steamboat, I'm glad to know that those in Penang are pretty decent but there is one that is very popular which is located at Raja Uda, near to the 9 Emperor Temple along Jalan Raja Uda. The place is called Zi Wei Yuan Steamboat Restaurant and its easily spotted as its right along the main road. I'll post the GPS coordinates below.

So what's so special about this place? Well, for a start, their steamboat is that of a fish and yam stock and this is what gets customers coming back for more. They also uses charcoal for the heat and its pretty cool when you see their portable mini fan firing up the heat! 

So, the way to  order here is that there are 2 ways to do so. Its either ala carte or one can choose from the many set items. So it really depends on you liking and budget. The prices are pretty decent and won't cost you a bomb as long as you don't order something super expensive like abalone.

What I like about this steamboat is that the soup base is very tasty and when you throw in the fried yam and fish meat, the soup base really comes together in the end to make it a great tasting pot of soup. You can then either have it with rice or noodles and you will not be disappointed. I mean, so many people going there can't all be wrong right? So, those that have been there too, do feedback how was your experience! Cheers.

GPS : N5.439204, E100.386782

The yummy pot of goodness!

DRB-Hicom Autofest 2013 ~ SPICE, Penang

Well, even though I like cars and wish I could afford some nice ride, I'm not exactly like a diehard car fanatic who would travel all the way to Bangkok to attend the Auto Show there, even though I heard its pretty darn good. Well, it so happens that this weekend in Penang, @ SPICE or PISA, DRB-Hicom was having an Autofest and since this place is like only 10 minutes from where I live, I said what the heck, lets have a look at what they have to offer.

From the advertisements, I could have more or less guessed that this was more like a car roadshow for them to sell cars to prospective buyers, and true enough it really was. I have to say though, it was pretty nice where they have dedicated area for the buyers to close the deal, and sign the papers, or get their cars evaluated for a trade-in. It was sort of a one stop for your car purchase and it was done in the privacy of these dedicated area and not just on the show floor itself.

Well, a few booth caught my attention which was the Mitsubishi, Lotus, Audi, Volkswagen and Can-AM. I was also expecting to see lots of latest cars and models but sadly, it was like walking into a typical showroom with lots of often seen cars and sales personnel. Well, I guess thats why its called an Autofest and not a car show so, no complains la. Anyway, I would give the award of best cars on display probably to Lotus as they did bring all their models here and the award for best models (ladies) to Volkswagen! Too bad I didn't get their picture, as they were the only booth with decent models, so abit shy to ask la.

But finally, I think they really planned it pretty well to include lots of family aspect into this Autofest as the children will definitely be entertained as there were clowns and buskers all over the place to hand out balloons and gifts to children. There is even a inflatable playground area at the upper concourse just for kids to play around which I found to be really generous of the organizers (its all free for the kids)

All in all, pretty good job to DRB-Hicom for this event. I didn't get to ride on a Lotus though, even though it was advertised as such. Hopefully in their next event!

Mitsubishi ASX

Lou Malnati's ~ Deep Dish Pizza from Chicago

Its nice to have buddies in places that you visit and Bill was nice enough to bring me to sample one of the legends of Chicago food which is the deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati's! Well, I would guess this is really some famous as even my sister asked if I tried it, and I'm very very glad I did. Besides not having been to Italy, I find that the pizzas in the USA overall are really good and way way better than any fast food or pizza joints available locally in Penang.

So apparently Lou's started way back in Chicago and actually now have quite a number of outlets spread out across the state. They even do mail orders if you are in the USA and I was really tempted to see if they will ship it to Penang, but they mentioned its USA only :( Bummer.

Anyway, so what is so different with a deep dish than a normal pizza? Well, for starters, the deep dish is over 1 inch thick, so imagine your normal pizza toppings being really thick, almost lasagna thick. This is thus what a deep dish is. A very thick pizza! 

I was told the original filling is cheese with spinach but we ordered a custom one with lots of sausage and bell peppers and of course loads of cheese! It was a 12 inch pizza just nice for 2 person, but can you imagine, I actually managed to eat half of this monster with Bill devouring the rest! Not bad for 2 person, I don't imagine me able to chow down the bigger one though. 

The pizza was very flavorful and I find the crust to be pretty edible too. Not overly hard. Also the filling was just delicious and as I write this, the hunger pangs is making me drool over this now! Anyway, if you are in Chicago and have a love for pizzas, don't pass up the offer to try this!

A note, the place was packed by 6pm, and its a good thing we reach just before the crowd as it takes awhile to bake this monster! Comments welcomed as always.

 Oh my, what a beauty

The exterior of the building. This one is a historic building and supposedly over 50 years old, or was that 100?

Shaw's Crab House ~ Schaumburg, Chicago

So, with limited time I had in Schaumburg, what should I have for dinner? Well, what better way than to search Google and get some hints right? Well, I wanted to taste some good food of course and stumbled upon this place called Shaw's Crab House. Well, the first thing I thought would be it would be great for crabs, but upon looking at the menu, golly, it was mightily expensive!

So, I ended up there during their happy hour where oysters were going at half price, and I ended up ordering 1 dozen. Sadly, well to my disappointment, the oysters were tiny! Yes, the bucket of ice which it was served on was huge but they oysters were tiny. I was told that it was going to be small and these were sweeter or on sale, can't remember which it was, but you don't even get a decent bite out of it. Well, so much for that.

I also ended up ordering a salmon fillet served with some asparagus. This was pretty decent, but again, as a main meal, you really are half full. With that, I proceeded to order a seafood gumbo though this was pretty decent with lots of bits of seafood in there, it was abit watery to my liking. But then again, I haven't had much gumbo before but thats just me. Thus for me, Shaw's Crab House has the ambiance and all, but the value for money is just not there. They do have some oyster day special where the oysters are like 0.50 cents each but you need to check their website or Facebook often to see when it is.

Well, do check out the photos, and as always, leave a comment if you have been to this place ya.

Cheers

The 2 bucket of oysters, well should say bucket of ice with oysters on top

A view of the interior